One of the oddest quirks in our homes is that we flush toilets with water good enough for drinking — and toilets consume on average 40% of a household’s water use. To address this issue Sloan Valve Company has been hard at work perfecting the AQUS water reclamation system, which takes your bathroom’s sink water and recycles it for flushing in your toilet. As a do-it-yourself project the kit takes about 1 hour to install and promises to save up to 6,000 gallons each year. Other than perhaps saving water in a bucket, the Aqus provides the simplest and most effective solution to reducing our water footprint — and it has garnered a lot of attention for its innovative design.

Grey water has been a colorful topic in sustainable building because of the significant impact our water use has on the environment. Now that clean water supplies are at more risk than once assumed, we need to make every drop count. It also takes a significant amount of energy to distribute and process drinking water and waste water through an aging system.

Sloan’s AQUS system is built around a box that rests inside the vanity and holds up to 5.5 gallons of reclaimed sink water. A small pump, activated by a water level sensor in the toilet tank, transfers the grey water to the toilet and fills the reservoir alongside the toilet’s water supply, off-setting 65% of the potable water needed per flush. If the Aqus is out of water, the toilet’s regular water supply fills the tank, and if the Aqus is full, excessive water goes through the normal drain. The system also requires maintenance only once a year, reducing the complexity and improving the safety of using grey water.

14 Comments

I would like to purchase an AQUS but Sloan has stopped distributing them. We have a serious drought in California. Perhaps someone from Sloan should contact Gov. Brown and see if you can get some state support to start manufacturing the AQUS again.

The size of the tank takes up a lot of space in the vanity. Toilets today use 1.6 or 1.3 gal per flush; so you should be able to reduce the size of the storage tank to 3.5 gal instead of 5.5. A more compact unit would appeal to more homeowners.

Roz

MajorPayneDecember 25, 2013 at 11:46 am

Nice concept however sad considering all links in this article are dead. Either the manufacturers are out of business or whoever manages their Website knows nothing about SEO and correcting 404′s.

cmccoysSeptember 4, 2013 at 6:11 am

What is the maximum distance between the gray water tank and the toilet tank?
Are there plans to make larger systems?

Smarti1957November 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm

I’ve seen a setup I prefer, where the sink is located on top of the toilet tank so the water drains in the tank automatically. I would invest in a sink that fits over my tank before one of these because it is more efficient and the space it takes up is usually unused anyway.

AQUSbySloanOctober 23, 2011 at 2:33 pm

The AQUS consumes about $0.60 worth of electricity per year. That is because it runs in low voltage (12 VDC) for only 1 per day.

Great question when people are trying to figure out the true cost of water conservation.

This is a great solution for retrofitting existing toilets. While there are other solutions that will help you to reduce the amount of water needed per flush, this goes step further by recycling water already in the house.

bewilderedpatriotSeptember 8, 2011 at 10:02 pm

This remninds me of the Dyson strategy.
Go to Japan. Find a successful, well incorperated technology. Return home. Sell it as your own revolutionary idea.

It is a great water saver though, we should also by using the system for washing machines.

Diane PhamSeptember 8, 2011 at 11:53 am

great system. would love to have these in my parents house where we have 4 toilets flushing away tons of clean water.